“Only one QB can play. We've gotta do a good job of making sure where these guys stand and make sure they know where they stand." -- Bill O'Brien.

STATE COLLEGE – Let's just emphasize right now, no matter what you've read or heard, the Penn State quarterback competition as spring practice concludes is dead even.

There is no breathing room between returning sophomore Steven Bench and juco transfer Tyler Ferguson. They're so close they might be the same guy.

View full sizePenn State quarterback Steven Bench throws as guard Angelo Mangiro protects during the fourth quarter of the annual Blue-White game at Beaver Stadium.
Joe Hermitt, PennLive.com

That's the iron-clad talking point that's being trotted out here, anyway. In 22 years covering Penn State football I've never seen anything like this. The control over the message about the QB race is so absolute that a pair of rising sophomores were not available to talk about it. That would be the quarterbacks themselves.

Even the notably retentive Joe Paterno allowed rising sophs to talk. But Bill O'Brien is so dead-set on making sure neither Californian Ferguson nor Georgian Bench has a perceived advantage here that he banned the QBs from post-game interviews. Quarterback coach Charlie Fisher was not available, either.

View full sizePenn State quarterback Tyler Ferguson throws downfield during warm ups at the annual Blue-White game at Beaver Stadium.
Joe Hermitt, PennLive.com

So, if you were looking for some thoughts about how the two current candidates compare as far as command of the offense, huddle demeanor, zip on passes, leadership intangibles, just save your inquiries. It's even. Not as in yin and yang. More like Yin and yin. Or yang and yang. Not saying that one is yin and one is yang. Let's just call them both “yan,” OK?

In all seriousness, there are fairly apparent differences but they, believe it or not, are so balanced they sort of... even out. Wouldn't you know?

Based on Saturday's Blue-White scrimmage, Ferguson looks to have the stronger arm. He zipped several throws into the brisk wind that found their mark, especially a 27-yard TD pass fired to the back of the end zone to the fingertips of Jesse James. Bench meanwhile back-footed a couple of flat passes into dangerous pick-six areas that the wind seemed to disrupt.

Given his advanced experience with the offense, though, Bench should have a greater command at this point. And he's known to be a confident sort who won't back down from a challenge. And Bench appears slightly more mobile and able to slide from the pocket with grace under a rush.

Being a first-year starting quarterback is not easy. Clearly, O'Brien wants to eliminate some of the noise from the minds of these two for now and not have them worry about how to say what, only how to do what they need to effectively compete.

So, not only were the QBs shielded from any questions, the rest of the Nittany Lions were scrupulously coached to address any queries about them with equanimity and total absence of favoritism or bias.

Just as an example, I asked junior wideout Allen Robinson to assess the strengths of Ferguson, then Bench. Not weaknesses, mind you. Just strengths.

On Ferguson: “Learning the offense. He came in January so there was a lot on his plate. Just by him picking everything up so quickly, I'd say that's definitely helped his progress throughout the spring.”

On Bench: “Same thing on him. We knew last year, Matt [McGloin] was getting a lot of the reps, so him getting acclimated with the players has helped him as well.”

Any difference in their balls?

“They're about the same.”

What are their style of personalities like, Steven, then Tyler?

“I would say their demeanor is about the same. Same right now.”

You get the picture. No matter with whom I spoke – Robinson, James, redshirt freshman Eugene Lewis – identical talking points by were dispensed by each receiver .

OK, fine. In all fairness, trying to split hairs between these two guys at this point is a losing proposition – especially when entering freshman Christian Hackenberg won't even arrive until June and won't actually enter the live competition until August.

Further, attempting to glean all but shallow import from almost any play in this event is silly.

The Blue-White Game is notorious for its meaninglessness. It's an exhibition for the fans run at somewhere between 50- and 75-percent speed with dumbed-down stratagems and a wacky scoring system. It's so frivolous that a miked-up O'Brien spent the third quarter announcing the plays to the crowd and leading “We Are...” cheers from the crowd. It's a carnival, not a serious scrimmage.

Conversely, the list of PSU spring game stars who never made much of an impact in real games is long. Anyone remember Carl Gray? Or Aric Heffelfinger? Titcus Pettigrew, Cody Caster? Um... Paul Jones? They all had big Blue-White games.

Then, there's the matter of keeping the principals balanced and happy enough to stick around. Transfers are always a concern under this type of situation. But under the current NCAA sanctions, either Bench or Ferguson may transfer immediately to another school and suffer none of the usual restrictions. If either gets wind he is odd man out too early, that would be the likely consequence.

Further, for O'Brien or anyone else to make judgments based on Blue-White or anything prior to it is a useless exercise. The real work will come now and only O'Brien can do it. It's tape work, it's analysis of inventory already gathered but not fully studied.

I asked O'Brien if he was any closer to knowing which of the live candidates might be ahead than he was when spring drills began and he gave a response that sounded genuine:

“What I'll do is, just by myself, I'm gonna go back and watch all the film from the spring over the next week. I think both guys did some really good things; I've said that all spring. I'd say, no, I'm not any closer as I sit here right now. Eventually, I'll have to make a decision.”

That decision will probably come in June and the reason is this: It's awfully tough to divide serious first-team August practice repetitions between three guys. You can't get enough done. You can't teach enough, can't watch enough, can't analyze enough. And nobody gets enough work. Not when the reps are split into thirds and the NCAA mandates a ceiling on practice time.

Said O'Brien: “We're gonna have to evaluate how we're gonna do that if we're gonna do that.”

So, the inference is he probably must do one of two things over the next two months or so: If he thinks raw freshman Hackenberg is a serious player for the starting job, he'll choose either Bench or Ferguson to pit against him. If he has doubts about Hackenberg this season, he'll pit Bench and Ferguson against each other and redshirt Hackenberg.

Because if nothing else is clear, it's this: O'Brien believes absolutely in one starting quarterback. There will be no tag-team.

“Only one quarterback can play at a time, in my opinion. So, we've gotta do a good job of making sure where these guys stand and make sure they know where they stand.

“Then, when training camp starts, we've gotta give Christian some reps and let him get in there and compete and see how that goes. So, we're a long way off from that.”

A long way off from answers about the most important piece on the board, then. Anyone who heard otherwise at this point, must've heard wrong.